Keep in touch with home while traveling in Belize.
Belize is full of tourism incentives. From fitness and yoga retreats to birdwatching, water sports, ecological beauties and respite. Tourism is good. English speaking population is growing and growing as English is taught in schools widely through Belize. The country’s luxury “resort and spa” industry is filled with luxurious, boutique Inns. Just as many resort and spas are in the mountain top ecological havens as lined along the beach. Despite the great travel incentives through Belize, the country’s internet freedoms are limited. The Belizean government does not allow Skype. Belize Telecommunications has concerns of lost revenue due to Belizean use of Skype for world-wide, and even local, calling. So they restrict specific websites and data ports.
Despite the problem of countrywide restriction of Skype’s usage, three months I successfully Skyped in Belize multiple times for extended periods of time. HOW? A VPN. A VPN is a secure firewall with changing IP Address, as necessary. It’s not tracked for a period of time, and then changes. So I hear….
My concern toward this is the ease of restriction government has to control Skype’s expansion and also the inability for people in Belize to utilize technology readily available and materialistically invested in.
Oh well-I just wanted to talk to my husband at home and see his smiling face while I was on a gorgeous mountain practicing yoga nearly all day every day. After 2 days of attempting while not knowing the restrictions on Skype across the board in this country, I was told, “it doesn’t always work well.” Well, you are not kidding!!
Answer to my problems and solution to communicating with my husband in Kentucky is HotSpot Shield! Skped worked in Belize with this free VPN. It bypasses the firewalls. All it took was the free version. Once you are using this Application, just remember to turn it off anytime you are not using Skype in Belize (or other restricted site I suppose) or it impairs the browser’s ability to go to other sites.
I hope this helps another Belize traveler. In respect to encouraging tourism, disabling the Skype communication service is really a poor move and I hope technological notes like this will not always be necessary.
Til then, happy traveling in Belize! Home of awesome Mayan ruins, gorgeous waterfalls, vibrant culture and dining, wildlife out of this world and relaxing afternoons or adventure excursions. Fit Bodies, Inc. creates teaching vacations for yoga instructors at very nice resorts in Belize such as Hidden Valley Inn. Check it out and professionals can sign up for the Fit Bodies, Inc. teaching vacation program. FitnessProTravel.com.
Hotspot Shield
Yoga Retreats in Belize
